As others have already mentioned...Flyers GM Holmgren is on the 'hot seat' more ways than one...

The team sucks - they goon it up (in a rather unsavory fashion I might add - mind you I still enjoy the pugilistic side of the game) - and as Harold pointed out - I'm certain Holmgren had words with both the coaching staff, and players.

To me - this has suspensions, and fines written all over it...Can we possibly ship Franzen, and maybe Smith (or player/s 'X') to land Giroux before Holmgren is relieved of his duties?

I've always been on the record as being totally against the "getting blown out so start a fight mentality". You suck, take it like a man, and go out and try harder next time.

But this is a new low, and of course it has to be Philly. Their management, fans and media have created this culture and mindset. Coach, GM and Emery all deserve fines and suspensions. The asshat journalist who made Emery 3rd star also deserves to be suspended, but as they self-righteously never cease to remind us, journalists believe themselves above criticism and beyond the law.

"If I can be totally honest, it's not a lot of guys you get impressed by. Actually, it's no one else but him. From the bench, to see what move he makes -- you're like, 'I wish I could do that.' Sometimes you sit on the bench and just think, 'wow,' and you look over to the other bench and they sit there and shake their heads, too. He has great, great skills. I'm probably not going to play with another player who has the kind of skills he has." Mikael Samuelsson on Pavel Datsyuk

If you watch Schenn was picking a fight with Urbom, he reaches over and grabs Urbom's helmet strap to whip it off his head (which it did) and then started throwing. I mean, I know fighters try to rip each other's lid off, lesser chance of breaking a hand. However, it seems to me that this action is on the same level as something similar to a sucker punch. They were in each others face and chirping but in a split second he flips the lid and starts wailing when it seemed like Urbom didn't want to fully thrown down. Just an observation.

According to Paul HOlmgren Berube is a no BS kind of guy? The funny thing is, the Flyers also lost the fights, minus the thug who shouldn't even be in the league (made it even easier to hate the Hawks and now Flyers): Downie conussion, Lecalvalier facial injury...the only guy I am giving kudos is Brayden Schenn not a fighter but just tried to mix it up too that takes balls.

I am sure Carter and Richards are nowadays extremely happy with being out of this gongshow, introduced with Holmgren and Snider. If they are stupid enough to trade Giroux, Kenny has to be all over this the guy has generational talent and is still fairly young.

I like Holtby. He seems like a good kid. He fights like a girl, but he seems like a good kid. Someone get him some boxing lessons.

Obviously the official should have broken it up once it was clear that Holtby didn't want to go, but at the same time, I'm disappointed in him for not answering the bell. Better to stand and lose; at least you have your pride.

I don't get why Emery had to fight there. It wasn't like the others had all paired off and were fighting, in which case, he wouldn't have had a partner. It's good for goalies to fight each other (as opposed to goalie vs skater) since their padding is the same, but only if both want to go. If Holtby declines, call him a kitty and move on to another partner.

I have no problem with fighting, line brawls or brawls of any kind. Just so long as all combatants are willing or haven't done anything on a Lemieux scale to deserve a beating.

The only thing you can say in defence of Emery was that he held back. Those punches he threw were pretty weak so he obviously knew what he was doing was wrong. Following orders?

Apart from the ridiculous goalie fight that was a pretty good brawl. At least Holtby was all smiles afterwards. To call for suspensions out of this is a bit over the top.

I'm not sure exactly how you're able to gauge the force of the punches from a youtube video, but when a guy is punching an unwilling participant in the back of the head and still trying to hit him when it's being broken up, it's not holding back.

I think a suspension for Emery is unlikely but absolutely deserved.

This isn't Vernon or Osgood fighting Roy. That happened at center ice and the first one was Roy coming out to stick up for a teammate. Emery skates the length of the rink to beat the snot out of someone who didn't want to go. Emery is a goalie but he's tough enough that it's not that different from an enforcer dropping gloves with a non-fighter and pounding him.

All the other fights were pathetic by the Flyers too, but not that big of a deal ultimately. The team is just a mess.

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo stupid. Wanna know the best way to get fighting out of the game? Make sure every fight is pointless (Orr vs. Parros) or barbaric (Emery vs. Holtby). Not a single fight in this very short NHL season has been necessary.

As a matter of fact, wanna know what fight would have been necessary? The one where some Washington goon went out to protect his goalie who was getting pummeled by Ray Emery and didn't want to fight. What's that? Such a fight never happened? I rest my case.

I don't know if I'd say every fight has been pointless but mostly agree.

And it didn't help that the ref was actively keeping Washington players from stepping in. They should've ignored him, but still.

My only real beef is the fact that there may have been a few guys on the Caps (Holtby in particular) who were on the ice, and aren't accustomed to getting involved in fights, and are then 'jumped'...The 'Old School Knuckle Dragger' in me thinks that was a pretty low brow move by Emery, and unless you're Matt Cooke/Ulf Samuelsson/Claude Lemieux/etc/etc - you do not deserve that sort of treatment.

I like Holtby. He seems like a good kid. He fights like a girl, but he seems like a good kid. Someone get him some boxing lessons.

Obviously the official should have broken it up once it was clear that Holtby didn't want to go, but at the same time, I'm disappointed in him for not answering the bell. Better to stand and lose; at least you have your pride.

I don't get why Emery had to fight there. It wasn't like the others had all paired off and were fighting, in which case, he wouldn't have had a partner. It's good for goalies to fight each other (as opposed to goalie vs skater) since their padding is the same, but only if both want to go. If Holtby declines, call him a kitty and move on to another partner.

If it were any other goalie in the league, I'd agree. But Emery is a beast. Remember him pounding Biron, then going with Peters immediately afterwards and not only holding his own but is laughing the whole time?

Emery is too good of a fighter to be going after a goalie who clearly doesn't want to go.

If it were any other goalie in the league, I'd agree. But Emery is a beast. Remember him pounding Biron, then going with Peters immediately afterwards and not only holding his own but is laughing the whole time?

Emery is too good of a fighter to be going after a goalie who clearly doesn't want to go.

Well - that might be true, but ya know it's pretty bad when all you got to cheer for is watching your goalie beat up the other teams goalie...It's sort of on the same level of some drunken goof sitting in his weathered lawn chair on the front yard laughing his a$$ off while watching his bully of a son beat up the kid from across the street.

It might make ya feel good for a few minutes, but in reality it's a pretty bad situation.

If the Flyers fire sale is coming soon, I hope Kenny offers something for Wayne Simmonds, would be a great fit here.

As far as Emery... There's no need for that, Holtby is a 3rd year guy, absolutely not a fighter, and you go and pound the head off him because you couldn't stop a beach ball? Not right. There's guys on Washington who I'm sure would've answered the bell with Emery, it's a weird situation, but Emery is no normal goalie. He's a tough SOB, and he's nuts. The Caps who were on the ice should be embarrassed with themselves with no jumping to his defense, no he wasn't hurt, but he could've been. Also, anyone surprised by any of this is crazy. With Holmgren as the GM and Craig frickin Berube as the coach, makes sense.

Wow. What the hell is the Ref doing during the goalie-"fight" ? I do boxing and if my opponent or me don't even try to defend ourselfs properly the fight is broken up. Why ? Because its damn dangerous. I don't like fighting in hockey but I accept it as part of the sport. But this is way, way over the top. The NHL need to get rid of such assholes like Emry who apparently aren't able to control themselves or , much worse, don't care about the health of other players at all. And it's not just dangerous, it's an embarrassed for the League. Try to convince friends that Hockey is a great sport when s*** like this happens.